WEBVTT - Iran Contra: Episode 2 - Trade Secrets 0:00:16.271 --> 0:00:22.831 Pushkin. Hey Leon here, Before we get to this episode, 0:00:22.911 --> 0:00:24.511 I want to let you know that you can binge 0:00:24.551 --> 0:00:28.310 the entire season of Fiasco Iran Contra right now, add 0:00:28.431 --> 0:00:32.071 free by becoming a Pushkin Plus subscriber. Sign up for 0:00:32.111 --> 0:00:35.510 Pushkin Plus on the Fiasco Apple podcast show page, or 0:00:35.671 --> 0:00:39.911 visit Pushkin dot Fm slash Plus. Now onto the show. 0:00:49.111 --> 0:00:50.671 Ronald Reagan makes his debut. 0:00:50.711 --> 0:00:52.991 Today is America's leading map. 0:00:57.471 --> 0:01:00.551 On the morning of January twentieth, nineteen eighty one, the 0:01:00.591 --> 0:01:03.351 White House was preparing for the arrival of a new president, 0:01:04.391 --> 0:01:07.871 but some unfinished business was threatening to overshadow the festivities. 0:01:07.991 --> 0:01:11.111 I Reagan may be the first president the day's top 0:01:11.151 --> 0:01:13.191 news story on his inauguration day. 0:01:13.311 --> 0:01:15.511 There's Angxiat that hangs over everything. 0:01:15.631 --> 0:01:17.511 This whole business of the hostages. 0:01:19.271 --> 0:01:21.751 This whole business of the hostages referred to more than 0:01:21.791 --> 0:01:24.751 fifty American citizens who were being held prisoner in Iran. 0:01:26.071 --> 0:01:28.310 They had been there for more than a year, locked 0:01:28.351 --> 0:01:30.991 inside the US Embassy in Tehran by a group of 0:01:31.031 --> 0:01:31.791 young radicals. 0:01:32.111 --> 0:01:34.951 The US Embassy in Tehran has been invaded and occupied 0:01:34.951 --> 0:01:36.071 by Iranian students. 0:01:36.191 --> 0:01:39.951 The American hostages were blindfolded, handcuffed, and marched out on 0:01:39.991 --> 0:01:43.591 the US Embassy's front steps by the revolutionary students. The 0:01:43.631 --> 0:01:46.711 Iranians had fought US Marine guards for three hours for 0:01:46.831 --> 0:01:47.991 control of the embassy. 0:01:48.311 --> 0:01:51.511 The hostage crisis started in November of nineteen seventy nine. 0:01:51.951 --> 0:01:55.031 Iran had just undergone a revolution a few months earlier. 0:01:55.711 --> 0:01:59.231 The Shah, Iran's long serving US backed leader had been 0:01:59.271 --> 0:02:03.631 overthrown and exiled. Islamic fundamentalists who called America the Great 0:02:03.671 --> 0:02:08.271 Satan had taken power. American news networks reported that Iran's 0:02:08.270 --> 0:02:11.951 new Supreme Leader, the Ayatola Rujuola Komeni, had given the 0:02:11.990 --> 0:02:13.311 hostage takers his blessing. 0:02:13.791 --> 0:02:16.991 The move has the Iola's personal support, which adds to 0:02:17.071 --> 0:02:20.431 Washington's difficulty in trying to resolve this dangerous situation. 0:02:21.751 --> 0:02:25.151 President Jimmy Carter tried to pressure Iran into releasing the hostages. 0:02:26.111 --> 0:02:29.631 His administration cut diplomatic ties with the Komeni government, and 0:02:29.671 --> 0:02:33.791 they froze Iranian state assets in US banks. Carter even 0:02:33.791 --> 0:02:36.791 authorized the secret rescue mission, but it ended in disaster. 0:02:37.151 --> 0:02:40.351 Thousands of jubile and Iranians gathered outside to celebrate the 0:02:40.351 --> 0:02:42.191 defeat and disgrace of America. 0:02:42.311 --> 0:02:44.951 The United States tried to free the hostages and failed. 0:02:45.391 --> 0:02:48.471 None of the hostages were released, and eight American servicemen 0:02:48.551 --> 0:02:52.551 were killed in a helicopter crash. The failed mission made 0:02:52.631 --> 0:02:57.111 Carter look hapless and ineffective, and the crisis continued. Americans 0:02:57.151 --> 0:03:01.031 turned on their televisions for nightly updates. Walter Cronkite began 0:03:01.111 --> 0:03:03.631 signing off at the end of every broadcast by noting 0:03:03.631 --> 0:03:05.991 the number of days the Americans had been held captive. 0:03:06.471 --> 0:03:09.631 That's the word it is. Tuesday, February nineteenth, nineteen eighty 0:03:10.071 --> 0:03:12.671 undred and eighth day of captivity, two hundred and twenty 0:03:12.711 --> 0:03:15.671 second day of captivity, three hundred and seventy seventh day 0:03:15.711 --> 0:03:17.511 of captivity for American hostages. 0:03:17.511 --> 0:03:21.271 Inter rat Carter's efforts to win the hostages release stretched 0:03:21.271 --> 0:03:22.631 into his re election campaign. 0:03:22.991 --> 0:03:26.071 The Republicans are itching to turn the hostage crisis against 0:03:26.111 --> 0:03:26.911 the administration. 0:03:27.151 --> 0:03:29.631 The administration has boxed it so bad that we're left 0:03:29.631 --> 0:03:30.671 with very few options. 0:03:30.831 --> 0:03:35.551 The hostage issue hovered over the whole campaign, and it 0:03:35.751 --> 0:03:38.231 was something that just so damaged Carter. 0:03:38.951 --> 0:03:42.271 That's journalist Jane Mayer, who covered the Reagan administration for 0:03:42.311 --> 0:03:45.991 The Wall Street Journal and co authored the book Landslide. 0:03:45.511 --> 0:03:49.711 And the idea of Carter being weak was really the 0:03:49.831 --> 0:03:53.031 thing that was hammered over and over again and played 0:03:53.031 --> 0:03:54.391 a big part in why he lost. 0:03:58.191 --> 0:04:01.511 Reagan's inauguration in nineteen eighty one marked the four hundred 0:04:01.511 --> 0:04:04.991 and forty fourth day of the hostage crisis. The outgoing 0:04:05.031 --> 0:04:07.471 Carter administration had hoped it would be the last. 0:04:07.911 --> 0:04:10.631 This has been quite a suspense evening. 0:04:10.711 --> 0:04:13.591 Jimmy Carter, his last night in the White House, spent 0:04:13.631 --> 0:04:15.871 it in the Oval Office working with his aids. 0:04:16.311 --> 0:04:18.510 The day before, they had notified the press that a 0:04:18.551 --> 0:04:21.950 deal had been reached to finally free the Americans, but 0:04:22.031 --> 0:04:23.951 the hostages were still not home. 0:04:25.311 --> 0:04:27.271 In the United States to be Carter. 0:04:28.111 --> 0:04:31.351 At the inauguration ceremony, Carter walked to the dais where 0:04:31.391 --> 0:04:34.991 Reagan was about to be sworn in. Even then, reporters 0:04:34.991 --> 0:04:37.791 were yelling out to him for confirmation that the hostages 0:04:37.831 --> 0:04:38.591 were being released. 0:04:39.831 --> 0:04:40.711 Whether you could hear or not. 0:04:40.911 --> 0:04:43.391 The President at Carter, which just passed if the hostagers 0:04:43.391 --> 0:04:47.711 are out, and he responded saying not yet, not yet. 0:04:50.191 --> 0:04:52.751 The Iranians were not going to release the hostages on 0:04:52.831 --> 0:04:56.630 Carter's watch. They waited until after Reagan was sworn in. 0:04:56.791 --> 0:05:01.111 Before allowing them to leave Tehran. As Carter traveled home 0:05:01.111 --> 0:05:04.191 to Georgia, Reagan got to announce the good news. 0:05:04.391 --> 0:05:06.071 Some thirty minutes ago. 0:05:07.511 --> 0:05:14.431 The planes bearing our prison left Iranian airspace and are 0:05:14.511 --> 0:05:15.791 now breathed. 0:05:16.991 --> 0:05:19.431 But it had been a wrenching day for mister Carter, 0:05:19.951 --> 0:05:23.071 and aide said he had been terribly hurt and disappointed 0:05:23.271 --> 0:05:25.351 when he was not able to announce the release of 0:05:25.391 --> 0:05:27.671 the hostages before leaving alf Us this morning. 0:05:28.151 --> 0:05:32.831 The simultaneous inauguration of Reagan and the hostages getting out 0:05:32.951 --> 0:05:36.070 enabled him to take full credit for it and sort 0:05:36.111 --> 0:05:38.151 of appear to be the savior. 0:05:38.791 --> 0:05:41.671 A week later, Reagan welcomed the hostages home in a 0:05:41.711 --> 0:05:42.951 ceremony in the Rose. 0:05:42.711 --> 0:05:45.511 Gardens at the White House, a welcome fit for a king, 0:05:45.631 --> 0:05:49.191 a kind of South Lawn ceremony usually reserved for visiting. 0:05:48.871 --> 0:05:49.710 Heads of states. 0:05:52.231 --> 0:05:58.471 Welcome home, you are home, and believe me, you are welcome. 0:05:59.351 --> 0:06:02.311 But the triumphant moment also created a liability for the 0:06:02.351 --> 0:06:03.231 Reagan administration. 0:06:03.751 --> 0:06:07.551 It so publicly associated them with this act that it 0:06:07.711 --> 0:06:11.391 upped the anti for Reagan. He was more vulnerable than 0:06:11.391 --> 0:06:14.031 maybe other presidents would have been to being manipulated on 0:06:14.071 --> 0:06:17.031 the issue because he'd made this sort of his selling point. 0:06:18.031 --> 0:06:21.631 Later, one of Reagan's counter terrorism analysts expressed regret over 0:06:21.671 --> 0:06:25.671 the spectacle. Where did we first go wrong? Nineteen eighty one? 0:06:25.751 --> 0:06:29.231 He said, once we had the Rose Garden ceremony, we 0:06:29.311 --> 0:06:32.991 had attached huge political benefits to the return of US hostages. 0:06:34.871 --> 0:06:37.631 In other words, Reagan had set himself up for a 0:06:37.671 --> 0:06:42.711 potential hostage crisis of his own. I'm Leon Nevak from 0:06:42.751 --> 0:06:48.351 Prolog Projects and Pushkin Industries. This is fiasco iran contrast. 0:06:47.911 --> 0:06:52.031 Seven Americans kidnapped over the past fifteen months, seven Americans 0:06:52.111 --> 0:06:52.991 who have disappeared. 0:06:53.031 --> 0:06:56.151 The Reagan administration's response to the series of kidnappings has 0:06:56.191 --> 0:06:57.751 been one of almost total silence. 0:06:57.871 --> 0:07:00.271 They did not want to have a hostage problem like 0:07:00.351 --> 0:07:01.271 Jimmy Carter has. 0:07:01.351 --> 0:07:03.031 Maybe they can get the hostages out. 0:07:03.191 --> 0:07:05.111 I can't assure you that no deal was made. 0:07:05.191 --> 0:07:07.191 The impression left by all of this is that things 0:07:07.191 --> 0:07:07.671 are afoot. 0:07:07.791 --> 0:07:12.071 The only person that could have stopped me, and I 0:07:12.111 --> 0:07:12.791 didn't do it. 0:07:16.951 --> 0:07:21.671 Episode two, Trade Secrets how Ronald Reagan tried to avoid 0:07:21.751 --> 0:07:24.671 Jimmy Carter's fate by extending a hand to one of 0:07:24.711 --> 0:07:38.391 America's sworn enemies. We'll be right back. Among the advisors 0:07:38.391 --> 0:07:40.711 and aides who joined Ronald Reagan in the White House 0:07:41.271 --> 0:07:44.671 was a soft spoken and cerebral retired Marine named Robert 0:07:44.751 --> 0:07:50.551 Bud McFarlane. McFarlane's domain was foreign policy. As a student 0:07:50.591 --> 0:07:53.071 at the US Naval Academy, he had longed to have 0:07:53.111 --> 0:07:55.591 a hand in shaping America's relationship to the rest of 0:07:55.631 --> 0:07:56.351 the world. 0:07:56.631 --> 0:07:59.471 And I had to think with all the rigor I 0:07:59.471 --> 0:08:04.911 could muster about the elements of power and their nature 0:08:05.191 --> 0:08:06.191 and their limits. 0:08:06.951 --> 0:08:09.751 This is Bud McFarlane speaking to me in December of 0:08:09.791 --> 0:08:11.831 twe nineteen in Washington, DC. 0:08:12.471 --> 0:08:14.631 All that is not unique to me. 0:08:14.791 --> 0:08:19.071 I mean, hundreds thousands of people go through as good 0:08:19.151 --> 0:08:22.951 or better schools than I did and get this foundation 0:08:23.191 --> 0:08:29.871 knowledge and self confidence that, yes, you can contribute constructively 0:08:30.031 --> 0:08:33.590 because you know the rules and you occasionally have a 0:08:33.670 --> 0:08:37.310 lucid interval and even imagination that could make the world 0:08:37.310 --> 0:08:37.991 a better place. 0:08:38.871 --> 0:08:41.830 Bud McFarland died in twenty twenty two at the age 0:08:41.871 --> 0:08:45.351 of eighty four. Perhaps more than anyone else in the 0:08:45.391 --> 0:08:49.471 Reagan White House, McFarlane felt personally responsible for the events 0:08:49.511 --> 0:08:52.790 that led to Iran Contra. When I first approached him 0:08:52.790 --> 0:08:55.471 about an interview. He made it clear that rehashing the 0:08:55.511 --> 0:08:57.431 story of the scandal would be painful. 0:08:58.391 --> 0:09:04.551 Remorse doesn't quite capture it. I I'd failed my country. 0:09:07.991 --> 0:09:11.470 McFarlane's career in government began during that Nickson administration, when 0:09:11.471 --> 0:09:12.831 he worked for Henry Kissinger. 0:09:13.190 --> 0:09:16.511 Henry Kissinger has been on the road conferring, negotiating, and 0:09:16.590 --> 0:09:19.710 meeting with heads of state in eight countries in nine days. 0:09:19.991 --> 0:09:23.790 McFarlane saw Kissinger as a professional role model, an ambitious 0:09:23.790 --> 0:09:27.790 geopolitical thinker who could see the vulnerabilities of America's adversaries 0:09:27.950 --> 0:09:29.271 and knew how to exploit them. 0:09:29.471 --> 0:09:32.550 Kissinger carried out his Middle East peace mission today in 0:09:32.670 --> 0:09:33.871 three Arab countries. 0:09:33.950 --> 0:09:36.550 He's the most gifted man to work in American foreign 0:09:36.590 --> 0:09:39.391 policy in any generation since World War Two. 0:09:40.030 --> 0:09:46.591 Henry was someone who I had admired, notwithstanding his cynicism 0:09:46.631 --> 0:09:53.310 and occasionally ruthless methods, and being there even as a 0:09:53.310 --> 0:09:55.231 note taker was a. 0:09:56.910 --> 0:09:58.111 Gift. 0:09:58.790 --> 0:10:02.111 In nineteen eighty three, just days before the invasion of Grenada, 0:10:02.710 --> 0:10:06.831 Reagan made McFarlane his National Security Advisor, the same job 0:10:06.910 --> 0:10:08.831 Henry Kissinger had held a decade earlier. 0:10:09.151 --> 0:10:15.711 Robert McFarlane, we'll be confirmed as National Security Advisor, but 0:10:15.830 --> 0:10:18.071 I want to thank you for accepting this new challenge. 0:10:18.231 --> 0:10:19.870 All of us look forward to working with you in 0:10:19.910 --> 0:10:21.511 the coming months. 0:10:23.151 --> 0:10:25.790 From the beginning of his tenure as National Security Advisor, 0:10:26.271 --> 0:10:30.111 McFarlan had a special interest in Iran. He believed that 0:10:30.151 --> 0:10:32.871 even though Iran was led by the intensely anti American 0:10:32.950 --> 0:10:36.790 Iatola Komani, the US might have a chance to intervene 0:10:36.830 --> 0:10:37.991 in the country's politics. 0:10:38.310 --> 0:10:42.271 Conscious of iran strategic and economic importance, the administration wants 0:10:42.310 --> 0:10:45.591 to keep the door open to possible reconciliation. But while 0:10:45.631 --> 0:10:48.071 Comte lives, that seems a distant hope. 0:10:48.790 --> 0:10:53.511 I really didn't imagine that we had a plausible prospect 0:10:53.710 --> 0:10:58.471 of being able to engage with this government. I did think, however, 0:10:58.670 --> 0:11:05.910 that there were reasons why the circumstances facing Iran might 0:11:05.991 --> 0:11:10.711 give us an opportunity to influence the regime change. 0:11:12.351 --> 0:11:15.830 McFarlane had this theory that there might be people inside 0:11:15.871 --> 0:11:18.591 the Iranian military who would be amenable to the idea 0:11:18.670 --> 0:11:23.151 of a coup against Komani. Theoretically, the Americans could help 0:11:23.190 --> 0:11:26.591 these dissident elements and in the process turn Iran from 0:11:26.631 --> 0:11:29.550 an enemy into an ally. The way they had been 0:11:29.670 --> 0:11:30.671 before the revolution. 0:11:31.670 --> 0:11:34.471 I mean, you'd have to have the very senior leadership 0:11:34.471 --> 0:11:39.350 of the military who had become demoralized. And that's theory, 0:11:39.710 --> 0:11:43.990 but it was a very plausible possibility that the military 0:11:44.030 --> 0:11:47.551 would be the instrument of changing the regime in a 0:11:48.030 --> 0:11:49.670 relatively bloodless coup. 0:11:51.710 --> 0:11:54.590 MacFarlane had a specific reason for thinking that Iran was 0:11:54.670 --> 0:11:57.790 vulnerable to an internal coup. As he saw it, the 0:11:57.830 --> 0:12:01.471 country was stuck between two foreign powers, Iraq to the 0:12:01.471 --> 0:12:05.310 west and the Soviet Union to the northeast. In Iraq, 0:12:05.511 --> 0:12:08.711 the problem was Saddam Hussein, who had invaded Iran in 0:12:08.790 --> 0:12:12.511 nineteen eighty right after the Iranian Revolution. The war that 0:12:12.590 --> 0:12:16.631 followed was unimaginably violent. Hundreds of thousands of people were 0:12:16.631 --> 0:12:17.231 being killed. 0:12:17.710 --> 0:12:20.831 A war that started months ago with fretful skirm issues, 0:12:21.190 --> 0:12:23.751 a war that no one now seems able to stop. 0:12:26.950 --> 0:12:30.471 Meanwhile, the Soviet Union was just sort of looming over Iran. 0:12:30.351 --> 0:12:31.471 On its northern border. 0:12:31.670 --> 0:12:34.511 Iran worries about twenty four Soviet divisions. 0:12:34.590 --> 0:12:37.271 The two countries shared a border, and MacFarland had no 0:12:37.310 --> 0:12:40.831 doubt that the Soviets, who had recently invaded Afghanistan, wanted 0:12:40.871 --> 0:12:44.151 to gain influence in the Middle East. He thought maybe 0:12:44.190 --> 0:12:46.831 there were people within the Iranian leadership who were concerned 0:12:46.871 --> 0:12:47.910 about the same thing. 0:12:48.511 --> 0:12:52.991 Out of self interest. That ought to have nurtured a 0:12:53.111 --> 0:12:54.271 dissonant element. 0:12:58.070 --> 0:13:01.951 There was just one problem. McFarlane didn't actually know for 0:13:02.030 --> 0:13:06.511 sure that these dissidents existed. He was thinking strategically, just 0:13:06.550 --> 0:13:10.790 like Kissinger had taught him, and he was hoping to 0:13:10.830 --> 0:13:14.190 be fair. There wasn't much else he could do. Concrete 0:13:14.190 --> 0:13:16.951 intelligence about what was happening in the Iranian government was 0:13:17.151 --> 0:13:20.511 very hard to come by. The relationship between Iran and 0:13:20.550 --> 0:13:22.311 the US was openly hostile. 0:13:22.991 --> 0:13:27.190 Leading officials of the Reagan administration repeatedly have accused Iran 0:13:27.351 --> 0:13:30.030 of sponsoring terrorist attacks against the United States. 0:13:30.391 --> 0:13:34.151 In nineteen eighty four, the Reagan administration officially designated the 0:13:34.190 --> 0:13:37.831 Komani regime a state sponsor of terrorism. They enforced an 0:13:37.910 --> 0:13:40.591 arms embargo that prevented the US government from selling weapons 0:13:40.631 --> 0:13:43.830 to Iran, and launched a diplomatic campaign to pressure other 0:13:43.871 --> 0:13:44.830 countries to do the same. 0:13:45.550 --> 0:13:48.870 The burning of the American flag, the shouts of Death 0:13:48.910 --> 0:13:50.030 to America. 0:13:50.391 --> 0:13:55.591 Friday prayers, Iranian imams led chance of death to America. 0:13:56.271 --> 0:13:58.710 So it was Chile between the Reagan White House and 0:13:58.751 --> 0:14:03.151 the Komani regime. But then in July of nineteen eighty five, 0:14:03.670 --> 0:14:06.830 Bud McFarlane received a visit from a trusted associate bearing 0:14:06.871 --> 0:14:10.430 good news. It turned out that the people mc farland 0:14:10.430 --> 0:14:14.070 had been imagining the dissidents within the Iranian regime were 0:14:14.151 --> 0:14:23.991 in fact real and they wanted to talk. Around the 0:14:24.031 --> 0:14:27.230 same time, a related crisis was unfolding in the Middle East. 0:14:27.791 --> 0:14:30.671 The American University of Beirut today is under heavier guard 0:14:30.671 --> 0:14:34.071 than usual. The US Embassy there, citing intelligence reports, has 0:14:34.151 --> 0:14:38.191 warned that pro Iranian extremists are planning mass kidnappings of 0:14:38.231 --> 0:14:39.471 Americans on the campus. 0:14:39.710 --> 0:14:41.990 John Weir was in his twenties when his father was 0:14:42.031 --> 0:14:43.351 taken hostage in Lebanon. 0:14:43.871 --> 0:14:47.471 I remember talking to my sisters and my sisters being upset, 0:14:47.590 --> 0:14:49.071 my mom being very upset. 0:14:49.471 --> 0:14:51.951 It was six months into Bud McFarland's tenure as National 0:14:51.991 --> 0:14:55.591 Security Advisor, and about three years since the American hostages 0:14:55.631 --> 0:15:00.311 taken in Tehran were returned home. John Weir's father, the 0:15:00.351 --> 0:15:03.471 Reverend Benjamin Weir, was a Presbyterian minister who had been 0:15:03.471 --> 0:15:07.750 assigned to Beirut, the capital city of Lebanon. Weir was 0:15:07.830 --> 0:15:10.911 kidnapped as he and his wife Carol were leaving them apartment. 0:15:11.391 --> 0:15:14.031 And not too far from the anxious department building, a 0:15:14.351 --> 0:15:17.230 car pulled up, some guys got out and grabbed my dad. 0:15:17.911 --> 0:15:21.191 My mom tried to fight them off, She's not much 0:15:21.191 --> 0:15:26.431 of a fighter, and they basically just muzzled him into 0:15:26.431 --> 0:15:27.870 the car and drove off. 0:15:28.751 --> 0:15:31.871 In the nineteen eighties, Lebanon was embroiled in a brutal 0:15:31.951 --> 0:15:36.350 sectarian civil war, and Islamic militia groups began kidnapping European 0:15:36.431 --> 0:15:40.151 and American citizens. The group that captured Benjamin Weir was 0:15:40.191 --> 0:15:43.431 associated with Hesbela, which enjoyed the support of the Komani 0:15:43.511 --> 0:15:47.871 regime in Iran. By nineteen eighty five, Weir was one 0:15:47.871 --> 0:15:50.391 of seven Americans being held hostage in Lebanon. 0:15:50.991 --> 0:15:54.551 Seven Americans kidnapped in Beirut over the past fifteen months, 0:15:54.871 --> 0:15:56.831 seven Americans who have disappeared. 0:15:56.911 --> 0:15:59.711 In addition to Weir, the group of hostages included a 0:15:59.710 --> 0:16:03.591 Catholic priest, a correspondent for the Associated Press, and three 0:16:03.631 --> 0:16:08.031 employees of the American University in Beirut. In the federal government, 0:16:08.351 --> 0:16:11.791 administration officials were most co earned, with one hostage in particular, 0:16:12.590 --> 0:16:14.951 a CIA operative named William Buckley. 0:16:15.511 --> 0:16:18.470 William Buckley, a political officer at the US Embassy in Beirut, 0:16:18.551 --> 0:16:19.230 was kidnapped. 0:16:19.271 --> 0:16:23.191 He was kidnapped on March the sixteenth, nineteen eighty four. 0:16:23.830 --> 0:16:28.990 Buckley had been with the CIA for decades, working in Zayir, Cambodia, Egypt, 0:16:28.991 --> 0:16:32.391 and Pakistan. When he was kidnapped, Buckley was the head 0:16:32.431 --> 0:16:34.911 of the CIA's be Route Division, though that was not 0:16:35.071 --> 0:16:38.871 public information at the time. News outlets identified him only 0:16:38.871 --> 0:16:42.511 as a political officer at the US Embassy. In January 0:16:42.551 --> 0:16:45.750 of nineteen eighty five, Buckley's captors released a videotape of 0:16:45.830 --> 0:16:47.871 him to prove that he was still alive. 0:16:49.031 --> 0:16:54.031 January nineteen, page five Hi as well. 0:16:55.511 --> 0:16:58.791 In the video, Buckley appeared weak and his voice sounded thin. 0:16:59.791 --> 0:17:02.791 Intelligence officials feared that the kidnappers were torturing him in 0:17:02.871 --> 0:17:07.151 order to get CIA's secrets. As Buckley's captivity stretched into 0:17:07.151 --> 0:17:09.911 its second year, it weighed on the minds of administration 0:17:10.031 --> 0:17:15.511 officials like McFarlane, CIA Director William Casey and President Reagan himself, 0:17:16.751 --> 0:17:19.710 But the administration seemed to be avoiding drawing attention to 0:17:19.711 --> 0:17:21.791 the hostage situation as much as possible. 0:17:21.951 --> 0:17:25.110 The Reagan administration's response to the series of kidnappings has 0:17:25.150 --> 0:17:28.271 been one of almost total silence. What a complete contrast 0:17:28.311 --> 0:17:31.551 to the actions of the Carter administration when Iranian extremists 0:17:31.551 --> 0:17:34.750 seized the American embassy in Tehran more than five years ago. 0:17:35.031 --> 0:17:36.390 Here again is John Weir. 0:17:37.071 --> 0:17:42.111 The Reagan White House had made a lot of political 0:17:42.191 --> 0:17:45.671 hay out of Jimmy Carter's issues with the hostages in Iran, 0:17:46.590 --> 0:17:50.191 and it was pretty clear to us that they were 0:17:50.431 --> 0:17:54.470 kind of suppressing as much as they could discussion of 0:17:54.551 --> 0:17:58.391 hostages or use of the word hostages, and they did 0:17:58.471 --> 0:18:01.391 not want to have a hostage problem like Jimmy Carter had. 0:18:01.870 --> 0:18:05.471 The administration had also publicly committed itself to an ironclad 0:18:05.511 --> 0:18:09.231 principle America does not negotiate with terrorists. 0:18:09.471 --> 0:18:13.991 Terrorists and those who support them must and will be 0:18:14.150 --> 0:18:15.311 held to account. 0:18:15.630 --> 0:18:18.471 The principle was that, you know, we should never deal 0:18:18.551 --> 0:18:19.511 with terrorists. 0:18:19.911 --> 0:18:21.831 Here's Jane Mayer again, that you. 0:18:21.951 --> 0:18:25.470 Do not honor them by dealing with them, and they 0:18:25.471 --> 0:18:26.991 took a very hard line on it. 0:18:27.150 --> 0:18:30.590 The Reagan administration communicated a consistent message to the Weir family, 0:18:31.350 --> 0:18:35.391 just laylo, the government is doing everything it can. They 0:18:35.390 --> 0:18:37.951 even had a phrase for it, quiet diplomacy. 0:18:38.271 --> 0:18:42.510 Quiet diplomacy was their explanation of why we had no 0:18:42.630 --> 0:18:45.670 idea what they were doing. We would say, so, what 0:18:45.711 --> 0:18:49.191 are you doing, Oh, well, we're using quiet diplomacy. 0:18:50.231 --> 0:18:54.590 Eventually, Benjamin Weir's wife, Carol took matters into her own hands. 0:18:55.150 --> 0:18:57.510 She had lived in Lebanon for more than thirty years 0:18:57.590 --> 0:19:00.671 and she knew a lot of people. She began traveling 0:19:00.711 --> 0:19:04.071 around the region talking to religious leaders, following leads of 0:19:04.071 --> 0:19:06.430 her own, and comparing notes with her contacts at the 0:19:06.551 --> 0:19:07.830 US embassy. 0:19:07.870 --> 0:19:10.751 She would ask them, you know, who have you seen? 0:19:11.551 --> 0:19:13.950 And there were a couple of occasions when they mentioned 0:19:13.951 --> 0:19:18.150 some people and she said, well, I've already seen that person. So, 0:19:18.751 --> 0:19:20.991 you know, she started trying to figure out who had them, 0:19:21.071 --> 0:19:23.870 what was going on, what did they want. But after 0:19:23.911 --> 0:19:28.390 we'd heard quiet diplomacy long enough, we decided that the 0:19:28.511 --> 0:19:33.511 quiet diplomacy was just a way of trying to pacify us, 0:19:33.991 --> 0:19:35.871 and that we needed to ratchet things up. 0:19:36.630 --> 0:19:39.590 Finally, Carol Weir decided that she needed to relocate to 0:19:39.630 --> 0:19:42.590 the United States and take her message to Washington. 0:19:44.110 --> 0:19:46.871 The wife of the Reverend Benjamin Weir was in Washington 0:19:46.911 --> 0:19:48.951 today seeking more help for her husband. 0:19:49.110 --> 0:19:52.991 It's four hundred and seventeen days now for me since 0:19:53.071 --> 0:19:56.791 my husband was kidnapped. As that's a long time, and 0:19:56.991 --> 0:19:59.150 I believe they have been forgotten. 0:20:00.870 --> 0:20:03.590 The Weirs used the resources of the Presbyterian Church to 0:20:03.630 --> 0:20:06.950 launch a public pressure campaign. They spoke at churches and 0:20:06.991 --> 0:20:09.791 gave press conferences. They organized an effort to get a 0:20:09.791 --> 0:20:14.350 milli letters written to the administration. In one speech, Carol 0:20:14.390 --> 0:20:17.511 Weir invoked the Iranian hostage crisis that had consumed the 0:20:17.590 --> 0:20:20.950 nation's attention just a few years earlier. She asked if 0:20:20.951 --> 0:20:22.871 she would have to wait four hundred and forty four 0:20:22.951 --> 0:20:30.590 days to see her husband. During his first term, Reagan's 0:20:30.630 --> 0:20:33.191 closest aids had tried to prevent the president from directly 0:20:33.231 --> 0:20:34.711 engaging with the hostage families. 0:20:35.311 --> 0:20:37.511 The old aides who knew him well, tried to keep 0:20:37.911 --> 0:20:41.110 people with hard luck stories away from him. That is 0:20:41.150 --> 0:20:43.430 the truth about Reagan was that whenever there was somebody 0:20:43.471 --> 0:20:47.271 who was an individual with a problem that was near him, 0:20:47.711 --> 0:20:51.071 he had a tendency to be empathetic and he could 0:20:51.071 --> 0:20:52.031 be manipulated. 0:20:52.751 --> 0:20:54.950 Reagan's minders had feared that if he met with the 0:20:54.951 --> 0:20:57.630 hostage families, he would begin pushing to get their loved 0:20:57.630 --> 0:21:00.551 ones released at any cost, and he might be tempted 0:21:00.551 --> 0:21:04.950 to violate his policy of never negotiating with terrorists. But 0:21:05.110 --> 0:21:07.911 by the summer of nineteen eighty five, many of Reagan's 0:21:07.951 --> 0:21:11.471 first term aids were no longer around. Without them there 0:21:11.511 --> 0:21:14.150 to hold him back, the President began to fixate on 0:21:14.231 --> 0:21:17.671 the hostages, asking about them in meetings nearly every day 0:21:18.031 --> 0:21:20.150 and agonizing over their continued captivity. 0:21:20.390 --> 0:21:25.311 He basically got drawn in and hooked and became emotionally 0:21:25.350 --> 0:21:29.671 involved in the situation, and he made clear that he 0:21:29.791 --> 0:21:33.551 cared and he really wanted these hostages out and something 0:21:33.630 --> 0:21:35.831 done about it. And his motto, which he often said 0:21:35.870 --> 0:21:39.431 to his aides, was don't bring me problems, bring me solutions. 0:21:40.150 --> 0:21:43.911 In July of nineteen eighty five, National security advisor Bud 0:21:43.991 --> 0:21:48.551 McFarlane approached the President with a possible solution. In his diary, 0:21:48.671 --> 0:21:52.430 Reagan wrote, some strange soundings are coming from the Iranians. 0:21:53.191 --> 0:21:56.351 Bud em will be here tomorrow to talk about it. 0:21:56.350 --> 0:21:58.710 It could be a breakthrough on getting our seven kidnap 0:21:58.791 --> 0:22:02.990 victims back. McFarland's meeting with Reagan was prompted by a 0:22:02.991 --> 0:22:05.910 conversation he had had two weeks earlier with a senior 0:22:05.991 --> 0:22:10.950 Israeli diplomat. The diplomat's name was David kim k He 0:22:10.991 --> 0:22:15.350 had previously served as deputy director of Masad, Israel's intelligence agency, 0:22:15.791 --> 0:22:20.871 and MacFarland trusted his judgment. According to MacFarlane, kim Key 0:22:20.951 --> 0:22:23.350 told him that Israel had been in touch with Iranians 0:22:23.350 --> 0:22:26.470 who were disaffected by the turmoil in their country and 0:22:26.511 --> 0:22:29.311 who were both willing and able to change the government. 0:22:30.271 --> 0:22:33.911 It was simply stated that there are elements in the 0:22:34.191 --> 0:22:38.751 Iranian army that are prepared to open a dialogue with 0:22:38.951 --> 0:22:47.110 us that might lead to oh regime change, but that 0:22:47.191 --> 0:22:50.111 it would take probably years of nurture to do it. 0:22:51.390 --> 0:22:54.271 I was simply heartened, however, by the fact that he 0:22:54.390 --> 0:22:58.870 thought it might be nurtured and developed over time. 0:22:59.791 --> 0:23:03.911 It was exactly what MacFarlane had hoped for, Iranian moderates 0:23:03.911 --> 0:23:07.350 and positions of power who secretly opposed the revolutionary government 0:23:07.390 --> 0:23:10.991 that had taken over their country. There was a catch. 0:23:11.671 --> 0:23:16.311 The coup was not going to nurture itself before there 0:23:16.311 --> 0:23:20.071 could be any dialogue between the US and these Iranian moderates. 0:23:20.671 --> 0:23:23.071 The Americans would have to do Their new friends a 0:23:23.071 --> 0:23:27.831 good turn, they would have to sell them some weapons. Specifically, 0:23:27.951 --> 0:23:31.191 the Iranians wanted anti tank missiles for use in their 0:23:31.231 --> 0:23:35.511 war against Iraq. It was a big request, but the 0:23:35.511 --> 0:23:39.670 Iranians were offering something valuable in return. They could use 0:23:39.711 --> 0:23:42.630